The South Africa-based African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) in partnership with the Centre for African Peace and Conflict Resolution (CAPCR) at California State University, Sacramento are hosting the fourth International Africa Peace and Conflict Resolution conference under the theme 'Alternative Dispute Resolution and Peace Studies in Africa: Lessons, Prospects and Challenges' from 25-26 July 2014 in Johannesburg.

Organisers recently launched preparations and published a call for papers for this international summit, which will seek to address a gap in knowledge and research on various Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms as well as peace and conflict resolution initiatives and their impact in reducing conflicts, increasing peace and development, and promoting social justice in Africa. Within this context, the conference will attempt to identify best practices, common challenges and prospects in addition to providing space for networking, self-assessment, reflection and innovation among practitioners, academics, policymakers, and donors participating in the event.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and related conﬂict resolution programmes emerged in Africa in the mid-1990s, followed by peace studies in the 2000s. During the said periods, many government and educational institutions and non-governmental organisations have been created in different parts of Africa; various related programmes and projects have been developed and implemented, and certain enabling legislations, policies and institutions created. However, there is paucity of knowledge or research on the key lessons, common challenges and prospects of the various ADR mechanisms as well as peace and conﬂict resolution initiatives and their impact in reducing conflicts, increasing peace and development, and promoting social justice in Africa.

This fourth international summit, following earlier meetings in 1998 and 2011 in Accra, and 2008 in Addis Ababa, will attempt to fill the void by identifying the best practices or lessons of current programmes, projects and initiatives and promote exchanges on key gains, progress made and common challenges; it will also create opportunities for continent-wide regional / international networking in peace building practice and research. Identifying / addressing current void or gaps will provide opportunity for self-assessment, reflection and innovation among advocates, practitioners and scholars, donors and policymakers, and contribute to the sustainability of emergent popularity and promise of peace studies and various conflict resolution projects in Africa.

The meeting will also facilitate regional networking and development of common standards of ethics for ADR and/or conflict resolution practice and training as well as articulate evaluation benchmarks.
Call for Papers:

Download the Call for Papers here
Guidelines for Submissions:
• Only online submissions will be accepted;
• Please endeavour to use the same email address for all correspondence;
• Early submission is strongly encouraged.
Abstracts must be 150 words and should include your title, full contact details, description of your data, key ﬁndings and recommendations as well as your institution / organisation with which you are afﬁliated or identiﬁed.

Papers must be between 15-20 pages, including illustrations / tables and references, due on 1 July 2014.

Interactive Presentations:

An interactive presentation, for the purposes of this conference, is either a photographic presentation or a video-graphic presentation. Some research is easily adapted to this style, especially in the area of case studies and role plays. If your presentation is in this category, please indicate it in your proposal and also indicate what accessory it may require.

Panel Sessions:

Proposals for panel discussions or presentations of 3-5 people are welcome. The panel members (with names, institution, contact, paper title and abstract) you propose must agree in advance of submission to participate as panel presenters and to register for the conference.

Ethical Considerations:

Authorship: Authors must give credit through references or notes to the original author of any idea or concept presented in the paper and proposal. This includes direct quotations and paraphrases.

Publication or Presentation History: If material in your presentation has been published, presented, or accepted for publication or presentation, this must be disclosed in your paper and proposal. Please note that depending on the decision of the reviewers, this may render your material ineligible.

Conference Attendance: If your panel, paper, or interactive display presentation is accepted for this conference, you have a commitment to register for and attend the conference and perform your assigned role. All chairs and respondents also make this commitment.

If extenuating circumstances prevent you from attending, ﬁnd a substitute to perform your duties and notify the organisers through the contacts given in this Call for Papers.

Hotel/Lodging: Johannesburg, South Africa (hotel / venue to be conﬁrmed)

Participants are responsible for their travel and accommodation costs and arrangements.

Paper Publication: Select papers will be published in a post-conference book or conference proceedings.

Submission of Papers, Rights, and Agreement

By submitting papers, abstracts, author names, diagrams, and other data (the 'submission') to the conference organisers for inclusion in the 2014 conference, authors understand that they become part of an agreement between the organisers of the conference, which stipulates the following:

As part of the conference, this submission may be included and/or made available in an online conference website, printed conference documents, or other online or electronic media. After the conference, accepted submissions will be archived and distributed as a part of the fourth International Africa Peace and Conﬂict Resolution Conference.

Authors grant to CAPCR and ACCORD, a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable license to reproduce, distribute, create derivative works from, publicly perform, and publicly display the submission in all languages, in whole or in part, to end users through a direct online or relicense or sale of information products, including but not limited to all formats of magnetic digital, CD-ROM, tape, online hosts, Internet services, and other electronic, laser, or optical media or other formats now known or hereafter discovered.

CAPCR and ACCORD shall have the right to register copyright to the submission and the accompanying abstract in their name as claimant as part of the conference proceedings or another medium in which such submission is included. An author submitting a paper to this conference retains the right to publish this work in a journal or other publication without limitation by CAPCR, ACCORD or other afﬁliates.

Topics

Presentations are invited from all areas of experience and case studies of alternative dispute resolution and peace studies at/by governmental agencies and nongovernmental organisations, educational institutions, Chambers of Commerce and Election Commissions among several others.

Thematic areas include but are not limited to the following:
• Governance disputes - including political disputes, government administration / civil service disputes and electoral/election disputes;
• Extractive industries disputes - including mining, oil and gas and quarrying;
• Commercial disputes - including employment and labour relations;
• Cultural / ethnic disputes - including chieftaincy issues and succession, community and indigenous justice systems;
• Construction disputes;
• Property / asset disputes - including land disputes;
• Family disputes - including marriage and divorce, child custody and inheritance disputes;
• Peace education - peace education as part of the curriculum of educational institutions, civic education, and leadership development;
• Mainstreaming ADR - including judicial reform, challenges, lessons and the way forward, ADR legislations and legislations that give room for ADR;
• National reconciliation and transitional justice;
• Gender and women;
• Human rights;
• Youth non-violence and leadership;
• Disability issues;
• Building a culture of peace and its sustainability - including national architectures for peace, the role of peace councils and civil society and non-governmental organisations;
• Crisis response and national security concerns - including the role of the Red Cross / Crescent organisations, disaster management and other relief efforts;
• Trends in the usage of ADR mechanisms;
• Congregational/religious disputes - including intra-faith and inter-faith disputes;
• Security interventions and armed conﬂicts - including declaration of state of emergencies and imposition of curfews, peacekeeping operations and de-escalation, disarmament and reintegration efforts.
Tentative Agenda (subject to change)

The South Africa-based African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes ACCORD in partnership with the Centre for African Peace and Conflict Resolution CAPCR at California State University Sacramento are hosting the fourth International Africa Peace and Conflict Resolution conference under the theme Alternative Dispute Resolution and Peace Studies in Africa Lessons Prospects and Challenges from 25-26 July 2014 in Johannesburg Organisers recently launched preparations and published a call for papers for this international summit which will seek to address a gap in knowledge and research on various Alternative Dispute Resolution ADR mechanisms as well as peace and conflict resolution initiatives and their impact in reducing conflicts increasing peace and development and promoting social justice in Africa Within this context the conference will attempt to identify best practices common challenges and prospects in addition to providing space for networking self-as